Start to Finish: 5.10 - The Sentinels of the New Dawn

Image (c) Big Finish Production Ltd

A bonus review today, as I managed to squeeze an extra Chronicle in last night. Caroline John returns as Liz Shaw in Paul Finch's The Sentinels of the New Dawn.

Liz Shaw knows that time travel can be dangerous, so when a friend plans to unveil a prototype time tunnel, she asks the Doctor to come and take a look. The resulting accident grants her a chilling vision of the future, but also a chance to avert it.

This story - which finally gives Liz Shaw a chance to travel in time - is, in the framing narrative, recounted by Shaw to a UNIT interviewer, with the interviewer and the villain of the main story both played by Big Finish stalwart Duncan 'The Ladies Bras' Wisbey. The main narrative has the Doctor and Shaw transported into the unimaginable future of 2014 by a prototype time window; chases in jet-copters to the Cambridge heliport ensue, as they strive to prevent the rise of a far right utopian political group before it starts.

This is one of those Doctor Who stories that takes time travel and runs with it. It concludes with the truncation of an entire timeline, but also features a group who use the time windows to ensure their financial success, by viewing the future of investments, lotteries and casino games. The Doctor is a near-constant presence, but Shaw still gets to be an active agent.

Overall, The Sentinels of the New Dawn is another successful effort.

Next up, a Fourth Doctor outing for Mary Tamm's Romana I, as the search for the Key to Time leads to Ferril's Folly.